Tiffanie Knight has shared her love for literature with her daughter and granddaughter, creating three generations of avid readers.
Tiffanie and her 28-year-old daughter, Morgan Bland, bonded over books since Morgan was a baby. The best books have very powerful, personal messages, and Tiffanie and Morgan tend to gravitate towards those books the most.
The pair have bonded the most over Karen Kingsbury’s books, which they both collect. The mother and daughter even visited a Karen Kingsbury book signing, which was Tiffanie’s Mother’s Day gift from Morgan in 2017.
The Baxter Family series is their favorite collection of over 20 books by Kingsbury. Morgan loves them so much; she is about to read these for the third time.
“My favorite Kingsbury book is Like Dandelion Dust. It talks a lot about the effect foster parents have on children in the foster care system,” Morgan said. “My husband, Jordan, and I are certified foster parents, so this book really touched my heart.”
Kingsbury’s books are based on real experiences, often focusing on how God sees His children as they walk through their lives. These books are perfect for people who want to read for growth.
Tiffanie’s favorite “reading for growth” books are Atomic Habits, What To Say When You Talk to Yourself, and The Slight Edge. She has made it a goal of hers to read at least one personal growth book a month, and she highly recommends these three books for anyone also interested in reading this genre.
Tiffanie has over 700 books in her library at home after donating over 350 books to local libraries. She collected several books over her 18 years of teaching grades first through sixth. She retired in 2015, but she has continued to teach her grandchildren when spending time with them.
Tiffanie has three children in addition to Morgan: Jordan Lynn, Daniel Knight, and Amanda Johnson. Jordan’s 13-year-old son, Jayden Lynn, also enjoys reading.
“Jayden loves reading and has picked up several chapter books. He is in the eighth grade at South Tattnall Middle School and is reading on a twelfth-grade level,” Tiffanie said.
When Morgan was younger, she loved the Junire B. Jones books. Maggie enjoys books like Sassafras, the Fancy Nancy series, Dr. Seuss books, and Eric Carl. Morgan now has over 1,200 books in her floor to ceiling library.
“I don’t necessarily shop for books. Rather, books often find their way to me. My husband’s grandmother, Judy Bland, has given me several books. When my mom retired from teaching, I looked through several of her books,” Morgan said.
Morgan still has several of her baby books and has passed them down to her daughter, Maggie, who is four years old. Before Maggie was born, Morgan wanted her to have a full library. To help with this, Morgan asked friends and family to give them books with personalized notes in them at her baby showers, rather than cards. She also held a book donation for her and Jordan’s foster child.
Maggie has also participated in events at the Glennville Public Library, a part of the Ohoopee Regional Library System. Maggie completed a program where she reads 1,000 books before Kindergarten and has benefited immensely from reading.
“Maggie has blown us away with her comprehension,” Morgan said. “She has been talking since she was 18 months old. She speaks in complete sentences now and has a great emotional vocabulary.”
Morgan plans to home school Maggie with the books she has collected.
Morgan, Jordan, and Maggie reside in Glennville, where Morgan has her own counseling practice. Tiffanie and her husband, Louis, also reside in Glennville.
